The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker

Very cool concept, but I agree with the negative reviews. The game really wants you to ask very specific questions and is not intuitive at all. You can know that you caught a character in a contradiction, but you can never express it as the game wants you to.

Great acting with an interesting and compelling story, but the game is just frustrating for me. English is not my first language, so if I misspell a word, I'm stuck; if I ask a question without proper grammar, I'm stuck. In the end, I just turn down the hint timer and spam hints, just to find out I ask that question but in a slightly different way. It just killed the immersion for me.

I am posting this as a positive review, but I am going to focus on vital aspects that can make you hate the game. Then you can decide if you should buy it or not. 1) Mechanic This is a very interesting game with a mechanic that allows you to concentrate on the story. I did not find it difficult and strongly disagree with most of the negative reviews. Most of them were written out of lack of patience and inability to read game description and tips in the game itself: write THE SAME words characters are using. I didn’t even write questions properly in the game, just a few words — English is not my native language and I struggle with tenses and questions. I just asked the same keywords characters used to get answers from them. This works 90 percent of the time. 5 percent is where the game itself will give you the questions on a silver plate that are hard to come up with yourself, and only 5 percent left are questions that are very unlikely for you to ask, but they are ALL logical. So, my point here: if you don’t like to waste a lot of time on thinking and typing… Then, this game is a BIG NO for you. I made 3272 searches in my first playthrough to find all responses and was overwhelmed a lot by the end. 2) Hints Unfortunately, I don’t see a way to play without hints (at least on the first playthrough). It is possible, but it will ruin your flow and will not get you dopamine, only tiredness. I tried not to use them often and ended with 213 hints. Which is around 7 percent of all questions I asked the characters. 3) Story The most important and most controversial aspect for me. I was literally crazy about it until the final act. Most of the patients are very well written. Some of them make you sick, others will evoke compassion. The main idea of the game still fascinates me, it’s such a good topic and the ability for players to stick by themselves with what they want to believe in. BUT despite all those characters, their stories and the main idea of the game — it ends with nothing. I think that the problem is they made a good concept, but due to it being very blurry and open to interpretation, the player is slowly increasing expectations while playing. The story escalates with every act and then, at the end, they just don’t give you anything to torture your brain with (what they did for almost all the game). I was especially disappointed how you are supposed to find the killer. I wrote notes in the game about every patient and everything they said that might help with solving the murder (5k words damn). All this to find out at the end that it wasn't worth it. To avoid any kind of spoilers, I’ll just say that there are no proper pieces of evidence throughout the story that you can analyze and make the right verdict. There was so much potential and, most of all, opportunities to implement an adequate investigation… I am very disappointed by it. So, why is it a positive review? I think it’s astonishing that this game made me go crazy for a week or so. I spread my mad ideas on everybody who happened to be near me. I thought about this game all the time, I tried to solve anagrams before going to bed. I am deeply in love with the idea of asking questions myself even though it is still tidy and can be exhausting. I loved the character’s stories, the actors, and the whole vibe of the game. It is a VERY good piece of writing. I just don’t know what happened to the writers at the end. It seemed like they got tired or something. In conclusion, if you don’t tire yourself out trying to do everything perfectly and just enjoy the process, I think this game can surprise you in good ways. If nothing I said made you frown, then you should definitely try it out! My cons can mean nothing to you, you can not know for sure about this game before trying it out for yourself.

This game is so hugely underrated. It initially takes a bit to get into but it has so much depth in regards to content and diversity - it's awesome. Played it through multiple times and each time it was great as depending on how you approach interactions, you get totally different outcomes. It can get a little finicky when it comes to the particularness of key words in the questions you ask, but if you approach that as a 'okay, I just need to ask better questions' rather than 'unless you use exact keywords, this is dumb' you enjoy it way more. Been looking for a game like this ever since I first discovered it. Would totally recommend.

Spielzeit: 10 Stunden Bewertung: ★★★★☆ / Positiv 🧠 The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker - Unheimlich, intelligent & fesselnd. „The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker“ ist kein klassisches Horrorspiel, sondern ein interaktiver Psycho-Thriller, der dich langsam, aber konsequent in ein Netz aus Wahnsinn, Wahrheit und Täuschung zieht. Statt Jumpscares oder Action setzt das Spiel auf Atmosphäre, Dialoge und deine Fähigkeit, zwischen den Zeilen zu lesen. Ein FMV-Erlebnis, das fordert, verstört - und lange im Kopf bleibt. 🎮 Gameplay: Fragen stellen, zuhören, kombinieren - und die Wahrheit suchen. Das Gameplay dreht sich vollständig um Gespräche mit den Patient*innen des verstorbenen Dr. Dekker. Du formulierst eigene Fragen (per Texteingabe oder Auswahl), lenkst die Gespräche und entscheidest selbst, welchen Spuren du folgst. Das fühlt sich an wie echte Ermittlungsarbeit: langsam, analytisch und manchmal frustrierend - im positiven Sinne. Kleine Schwäche: Nicht jede Frage führt zu neuen Erkenntnissen, was Geduld erfordert, aber genau das verstärkt das realistische Detektivgefühl. 🎬 Story & Charaktere: Dunkel, vielschichtig - und angenehm unbequem. Die Geschichte entfaltet sich Stück für Stück über die Aussagen der Patientinnen, die alle auf ihre eigene Art faszinierend, verstörend oder rätselhaft sind. Niemand wirkt eindimensional, und oft bleibt unklar, ob du es mit Wahrheit, Wahn oder Manipulation zu tun hast. Die Schauspielerinnen liefern starke, glaubwürdige Performances, die der Story Tiefe und psychologisches Gewicht verleihen. Besonders gelungen: Die Unsicherheit, ob du jemandem wirklich trauen kannst. 🌑 Atmosphäre & Präsentation: Beklemmend, ruhig - und konstant angespannt. Das Spiel nutzt sein FMV-Format sehr effektiv: statische Kameraeinstellungen, minimale Schnitte und sterile Räume erzeugen eine kühle, klinische Stimmung. Die Atmosphäre lebt von Blicken, Pausen und unterschwelliger Bedrohung. Kein billiger Horror, sondern ein langsames, kriechendes Unbehagen, das perfekt zum Thema passt. 🔊 Musik & Sounddesign: Dezent, düster - genau richtig dosiert. Der Soundtrack hält sich bewusst im Hintergrund, verstärkt aber gezielt die Spannung. Stille wird hier genauso effektiv eingesetzt wie leise, unruhige Klangflächen. Die Tonqualität der Dialoge ist hervorragend und essenziell für das Eintauchen in die Gespräche. 👥 Wiederspielwert: Hoch - für Detektiv*innen und Theorienliebhaber. Durch verschiedene Fragestellungen, alternative Dialogverläufe und mehrere mögliche Enden lohnt sich ein zweiter (oder dritter) Durchlauf definitiv. Beim erneuten Spielen erkennt man Details, Andeutungen und Widersprüche, die zuvor leicht zu übersehen waren. 🔍 Technik: Solide umgesetzt mit kleinen Komfortschwächen. Die FMV-Sequenzen laufen stabil und ohne größere technische Probleme. Die Benutzeroberfläche ist funktional, wenn auch etwas nüchtern. Die Texteingabe ist innovativ, kann aber gelegentlich sperrig wirken - vor allem, wenn man nicht sofort die „richtigen“ Fragen findet. ✅ Fazit: „The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker“ ist ein intelligentes, atmosphärisches FMV-Spiel, das vor allem durch seine Story, die starken Charaktere und das ungewöhnliche Gameplay überzeugt. Es verlangt Aufmerksamkeit, Geduld und Lust auf psychologisches Mitdenken - belohnt dafür aber mit einer dichten, spannenden Erfahrung, die sich deutlich von typischen Horrorspielen abhebt. 👍 Empfohlen für: Fans von FMV-Spielen wie „Late Shift“ oder „The Shapeshifting Detective“ Spieler*innen, die narrative Rätsel und psychologische Thriller mögen Alle, die gerne selbst Theorien entwickeln und Geschichten analysieren 👎 Nicht empfohlen für: Spieler*innen, die Action oder schnelle Entscheidungen erwarten Menschen, die mit viel Text und Dialogen wenig anfangen können Fans von klassischem Horror mit Schockmomenten 🌟 Bewertung: 7/10 „The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker“ ist ein unheimlich kluges FMV-Erlebnis - langsam, fordernd und atmosphärisch stark. Ein klarer Tipp für alle, die interaktive Geschichten mit Tiefgang schätzen.

Not quite sure what they were aiming for with this game. The question system feels clunky and the overall pace of the game feels a little slow. The acting is solid so that is a plus. This game just missed the mark for me.

Well... that was a game I played. It wasn't terrible. I enjoyed the ride I guess. I'll admit this is the 1st FMV I have ever played and there was certainly an adjustment, a learning period to figure out how to play the game. I never got very good at stating the questions, and used something like 600 hints because I was tired of having the right question, but not phrasing it correctly. Maybe that's specific to this game - due to its circumstances and premise? It was interesting, tho I felt a tiny bit anticlimactic. I guess there are different endings right - maybe I just got a boring one. I think I'll play more of these types of games in the future, I am curious to see what else they can do with this genre.

Amazing! The story and especially the acting kept me hooked the entire time! I really cared about the patients and their lives (but, it is also funny to try to drive them even more insane). What other people say is definitely true: It's nearly impossible to "guess" what you're supposed to ask, but that's what the hints are for. No shame in abusing that, if it helps you enjoy the game.